Fun software does not pay. There is such an over-supply of "fun" software (games, social networks) that people can get it for free. If you're interested in making money selling a product, "boring" is definitely the way to go.

But when it comes to writing valuable content, this presents a robust challenge. You intend to write in an engaging way, but with honesty. It feels like some topics just can't be jazzed up, no matter how many XKCD cartoons you include.

In this rundown I'm going to focus on simple surface tricks that will give you 80% of the effect for 20% of the effort. There are much deeper concepts that will take you further, but I think these easy wins are worth running through as a first approximation.

For deeper concepts, turn to a professional such as Joanna Wiebe from Copy Hackers:

Personas

Here's what I know about cryptography. There's two people "Alice and Bob". And they're into some pretty messed up shit.

Once upon a time, in a very frustrating meeting, I was trying to explain a concept to a client and no matter what I tried, he just didn't understand. I tried speaking slower, rephrasing things in numerous ways, drawing diagrams on the whiteboard, nothing was getting through to him. Finally, in exasperation I said:

Do I need to break out the hand puppets??

The customer, this tough nut, with a mind like a lead box, cracked up laughing! So I went with it. I used my hands as puppets, acting out the scenario. And it got through! I connected, and managed to get the neurons inside his fat head to actually start firing!

So I suggest you break out the hand puppets occasionally.

In practice this can mean inventing personas: "Jeremy is an over-worked sysadmin" — or even anthropomorphizing an inhuman concept: "Dale is a troubled soul: he is a CSV document with a mix of line separators. 'How did I get this way?' asks Dale." It can also mean re-packaging a concept through use of metaphor or in other creative ways.

PAIN! The one thing everyone can sympathize with

Okay, let me dial that back a bit. Psychopaths cannot sympathise with pain. But everyone else can. So, if you're willing to lose the psychopath-demographic, focus on pain.

Describe a painful, horrible situation, in graphic detail, which your reader understands. If that doesn't hook em in, they are dead inside and nothing will work.

Skim Friendly

All the usability studies show it... people don't read they SKIM. So make sure your content is skim-ready, with headings-HEADINGS-headings... in a logical structure that will make sense to a skimming reader.

Illustrations!

Your boring article on a boring topic can be jazzed up with illustrations, for example.

I started to make a mind map on the topic and soon got overwhelmed with just how many things there are you can do!

Illustrations can be whimsical, strictly relevant, or anywhere in between.

(There are also numerous sites online you can use for making more formal looking flow charts. My favorite is draw.io)

"Word clouds" are horribly overdone, but the variety of different styles available still make them worth considering, at least as a last resort.

The most popular "word cloud" creation software is 'wordle', which uses Java. It was created by Jonathan Feinberg who is very clever. His word clouds are far more beautiful than those created by any competitor.

Infographics!

2015 was the year of the infographic. Just as Wordle was over-used in 2010, so infographics were over-used in 2015.

But the positive side-effect of this over-use, is that there is now an abundance of online tools that let anyone create infographics, with very little effort, in a short amount of time. If you can sketch it on paper, you can build it into an infographic: few design skills necessary!

I've investigated a whole bunch of these tools, and noticed that they almost all require sign up before letting you use their tools. The one I liked best was 'Piktochart' so I can happily recommend it. (I am not affiliated with them or receive any kickback).

The Listicle

Even worse than the over-use of the infographic, was the over-use of the "listicle".

When you lead with "7 ways to Spice Up Your Dull Content" you've hooked in a very ancient part of the reader's attention.

You've created a tension in their mind, "7?" they ask, "What are these 7 ways?". So strong is the desire to answer the question that they will leap over many click-blocks to get to that conclusion.

Ascii Fonts

Here's a simple and somewhat novel way to make a heading or a few words stand out: ascii-fonts!

Stock photos

So overdone, yet not done enough! You can use stock photos in an ironic way, or you can tap into the latest era of stock photos, typified by Unsplash. Unsplash give you 10 new and interesting free-for-any-use images, every single day.

You can also use google's image search, with "Usage rights" set to "Labeled for reuse" and find all sorts of interesting images.

Hand drawn

Nothing beats the authenticity of a hand drawn image. Even just hand drawn words can serve as an interesting graphic and add impact. Sometimes even worse is better.

Hmmm. Perhaps I can illustrate this notion of impact with a punchy and awesome pictorial representation.

So easy, so effective.

In Extreme Cases

There's never been a more powerful example of using illustrations to draw the reader into a text than this epic masterpiece: